Racing Seminar Presented to Full House at the Northwest Maritime Center

Aleta, on March 2nd, 2010

Lecture attendees filter into the meeting room at the Northwest Maritime Center

The title “Racing on the Bay: the Insiders Advantage” drew over one hundred sailboat skippers and crew wanting to learn the secrets of sailboat racing on Port Townsend Bay. Lifetime Port Townsend sailors Daubie Daubenberger and Joe Daubenberger shared their expert knowledge gathered from decades of sailing and racing, with additional input from ace sailors Piper Dunlap and Stig Osterberg.

Pete Helsell of the NWMC introduces 3 of the 4 speakers, Joe and Daubie Daubenberger and Stig Osterberg.

All speakers agreed that to be competitive it is essential to do basic boat preparation, crew practice in tacking, jibing and all assorted maneuvers. Daubie presented and elaborated on three racing principles: Technique, Tactics and Strategy. Piper complemented this with numerous illustrations on a dry-erase board, and Joe and Stig provided back up, clarification, and examples to bring the illustrations to life. The evening ended with a slide show of second-by-second racing sequences from the start of one of last year’s races, and the lecturers evaluation and instructive critique of the boats in each slide. It was truly an informative presentation… an evening of great interaction with much sage advice.

Piper illustrates information presented by Daubie to an attentive audience

We (the PTSA Board of Directors) hoped this event would create enthusiasm for new sailors to join us in racing on the Bay, and in the final analysis appears to have done so. We have enrolled 7 new members to the organization, and at the end of the evening we had collected $875 in annual dues from new and existing members, $20 for youth sailing, $125 in burgee sales, and $485 in lecture admission. The total expense for production of the evening was about $355 (all receipts are not yet in but this is close), and these funds will be used to cover the organization’s 2010 operating expenses outlined in an earlier post to this website.

Secretary Steve Scharf shows his PTSA spirit

A huge THANK YOU goes out to our presenters, and to all who helped with organization, advertisement, and the dirty work of setting up and putting away chairs…and of course to all you sailboat racing junkies who attended the lecture and are itching to get out on the water and commence with the fun!